In this video excerpt of a full-length video produced by the School of Engineering and Applied Science Bou-Zeid describes his research and his method for collecting data. So far he has placed a dozen sensing nodes across campus to gather data on energy, water and carbon that ultimately will lead to a more complete understanding of how different building materials and vegetation interact with the local climate.

"Global climate models will tell you what's happening at the very large scale," Bou-Zeid said. "What we try to do is downscale these climate predictions to the local level. So we want to see how a small city will respond to a climate change given by these global climate models."